Online
piracy has plagued the music industry since the creation of Napster, a
peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing Internet site in 1999. As the Internet becomes
more widespread and advanced, other p2p websites, such as Pirate Bay and
KickAss, have been established. The
music industry has to work with the government in ensuring stricter laws and
enforcement, and better public awareness to control piracy, or the industry
will see their revenues fall and struggle to survive. In my essay, I will use
American company, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as a
representative of a music industry in my argument where applicable.
According
to RIAA, online piracy of music is the infringement of music copyrights, and
usually occurs when one procures music illegally without purchasing it. Other
ways that infringes the copyright include sharing of such music and allowing others
to download or obtain for free, whether through p2p sites or not. (RIAA, n.d.) However,
the bigger issue is that such p2p sites normalize illegal copyright
infringements. (Levin et al., 2007) By creating a marketplace where people have
access and the ability to trade music without remuneration, p2p websites make
it seem acceptable and commonplace for people to
download music illegally without paying for it.
Such
infringements not only hurt the record company, but also damage the income and
job security of the artist, producers, composers and others who are or may be
employed by the music industry. Future creative and artist development would
suffer due to damages caused by online music piracy. This will make the music
industry less dynamic and vibrant. (Friedlander, 2010)
Copyright
laws protecting the music industry have to be enforced. However the nature of
the Internet makes it difficult to completely get rid of p2p websites.
Copyright laws ensure that the creators of the intellectual property, such as music,
are properly compensated for their work. A feature of such laws allows the
government to shut down p2p websites as part of enforcement. This could be seen
when Pirate Bay was shut down by the Swedish government (Zetter, 2014) and Kickass
by the United Kingdom government. (Kamen, 2015) While such takedowns have been
successful and the illegal music downloads has decreased slightly (Weiblinger,
2011), such p2p sites still persist and exist. (Kamen, 2015)
The
reason why governmental controls are ineffective to get rid of such p2p
websites is due to the nature of the Internet. Websites put their content on
domains, and any countries can host these domains. Kickass, after getting shut
down by the Swedish government, moved their domain to another host in Moldova. (Andy,
2015) This fluidity and ability of changing domains between countries makes it
difficult for governments to set up effective laws and controls to tackle and
take down such p2p websites. Without inter-governmental laws and cooperation,
p2p websites will continue to survive and thrive in the borderless Internet and
continue to plague the music industry.
Another
solution that has been explored is public education. By reaching out and
partnering with schools, RIAA is able to create better awareness against music
piracy. For example, tertiary institutes in America like colleges and
universities now have anti-piracy on their campus Internet networks. Also,
there have been greater education, detection and enforcement towards youths in
American institutions done in partnership with RIAA. (RIAA, n.d.)Public
education is a better solution than governmental controls because it is a
bottom-up solution that tackles the root issue of music piracy, which is the
normalizing of an illegal act. Through public education, users of p2p websites
can be influenced and encouraged to stop downloading and sharing music
illegally and pay for them instead. RIAA has created an online resource, called
Music Rules, which can be used by teachers and parents to educate the youths
and “help you promote respect for intellectual property and responsible use of
the Internet in your home”. (Music Rules, 2009) As such, youths can be taught
from a young age that music piracy is illegal and hopefully dissuade them from
engaging with p2p websites to satisfy their music needs.
Public
education is also better than governmental controls because it requires less
concerted efforts between agencies. A government alone is unable to effective
get rid of p2p websites and require inter-governmental collaborative efforts,
which might be administratively difficult and costly to be effective and
efficient. Not every nation, for example Moldova, might participate in such
efforts, as they believe that such controls are against freedom of speech.
(Andy, 2015) Public education, on the other hand, can combine the resources and
efforts of the government, music industry like RIAA, schools, teachers and
parents to target the younger generations who are the main users of p2p
websites.
In
conclusion, p2p websites like Pirate Bay normalizes music piracy which negatively
damages the music industry. Attention and action is required to take down such
websites and educate and pull people away from using such websites. I believe
that public education, despite needing more time to see any substantial result,
is a more powerful force than governmental controls to achieve this goal and
more efforts and resources should be channelled for this action.
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words>
Andy.
(2015, January 15). Pirate Bay shows most significant signs of return yet. Torrent Freak. Retrieved from http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-shows-significant-signs-return-yet-150121/.
Andy.
(2015, February 5). The Pirate Bay left Moldova before government piracy meeting.
Torrent Freak. Retrieved from https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-left-moldova-before-government-piracy-meeting-150205/.
Friedlander,
J P. (2010, March 3). Nobody stole the pie. Retrieved from Recording Industry
Association of America website:
http://www.riaa.com/blog.php?content_selector=riaa-news-blog&blog_selector=Nobody_Stole_Pie&news_month_filter=3&news_year_filter=2010&searchterms=nobody%20stole%20pie&terminclude=&termexact=.
Kamen,
M. (2015, February 9). Torrent site Kickass seized. Wired. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-02/09/kickass-torrents-down.
Kamen,
M. (2015, February 23). Pirate Bay struggling to stay afloat since return. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-02/25/pirate-bay-failed-resurrection.
Levin,
A M, Dato-on, M C, Manolis, C. (2007). Detering illegal downloading: the
effects of threat appeals, past behaviour,
subjective norms, and attributions of harm. Journal
of Consumer Behaviour, 6, 111-122. Doi: 10.1002/cb.211
Music
Rules! (2009). Music Rules! Retrieved
from Music Rules website: http://www.music-rules.com/.
Recording
Industry Association of America. (2015, March 7). Who we are. Retrieved from Recording
Industry Association of America website: http://riaa.com/aboutus.php?content_selector=about-who-we-are-riaa.
Weiblinger,
C D. (2011, September 15). Do enforcement efforts make a difference? Retrieved
from Recording Industry Association of America website: http://riaa.com/blog.php?content_selector=riaa-news-blog&blog_selector=Do-Enforcement-Efforts-&news_month_filter=9&news_year_filter=2011&searchterms=weiblinger&terminclude=&termexact=.
Zetter,
K. (2014, December 10). Pirate Bay down after Swedish police raid. Wired. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-12/10/pirate-bay.
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